Americans are ready to rebuild our infrastructure. And a major part of making that happen is a commitment to expanding and strengthening America’s efforts to rebuild the construction workforce, which is suffering from a massive shortage. It’s one of the principles of President Trump’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal unveiled this week. Coupled with February being Career and Technical Education Month, this is the perfect opportunity to shift our mentality about educating the next generation of American workers.
Today, the construction industry employs about 7.5 million workers, yet we need to hire a staggering 500,000 workers just to fill the current backlog of existing jobs. If we add a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into the equation, we could have more than one million jobs waiting to be filled. The demand for construction workers is high, and firms are anxiously looking to hire tomorrow’s electricians, carpenters, welders, plumbers, HVAC specialists and more.
Associated Builders and Contractors partners with CTE programs across the country to help individuals prepare for a high-wage career without burdening them with mountains of college debt, transform their interests into marketable skills, and triumph as professionals who have earned nationally portable industry certifications.
Unfortunately, many students across America do not have opportunities to participate in high-quality CTE programs. Too often, policymakers, administrators, and educators subscribe to the “college-for-all” mentality while neglecting the kinds of hands-on, competency-driven CTE programs that prepare young learners with marketable career skills and a competitive advantage.
Policymakers at all levels of government can help bridge the skills gap and build the workforce of the future in two major areas. First, they should align education performance metrics with desired outcomes. The performance of education providers should be measured based on how well students are achieving all forms of postsecondary education and workforce readiness – not just college enrollment. Performance metrics that indicate postsecondary and workforce readiness should not simply include percentages of high school students who participate in high school CTE programs, but also those graduates who achieve industry-recognized credentials, continue to post-secondary CTE programs, industry apprenticeships and in-demand careers. These career-focused postsecondary options must also be treated as equal to higher-education in calculating overall school performance.
Second, policymakers must expand CTE availability through greater funding and program support. According to the Association of Career and Technical Education, the federal government spends more than $80 billion to assist students pursuing higher education through tax assistance and direct payments (i.e., Pell Grants). At the same time, the federal government only spends $1.1 billion to support CTE programs that lead to high-wage careers in industries like construction.
From fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2016, Perkins Act CTE funding to states declined by 13 percent while federal spending on tuition assistance for higher education grew by 264 percent. Funding increases are needed to drastically boost the number of high-quality CTE programs across America, recruit and train qualified instructors and ensure that technology is aligned with rapidly evolving labor markets.
It is encouraging to see President Trump has proposed Perkins Act funding reforms to expand access to CTE programs and to make certain training programs eligible for Pell Grants. But Congress needs to follow through.
CTE works, but America must do more to ensure these programs can keep pace with our economic growth and our changing workforce needs. As President Trump remarked in his State of the Union address, “Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential.” Together we can help build a safe, skilled, productive workforce that can become the time-tested foundation we need to build America.
George R Nash Jr. is the 2018 chair of Associated Builders and Contractors. He is also director of preconstruction at Branch and Associates in Herndon, Va.
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